UPA has alienated minorities: NDA

New Delhi: Opposition NDA on Monday said the UPA
government has alienated minorities and its "secular factory"
has put a stamp of al Qaeda on Muslims in the country.

"Your secular factory has put a stamp of al Qaeda on
Muslims...on each Muslim", Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (BJP) said in
the Rajya Sabha during a debate on working of the Ministry of
Minority Affairs.

He said while the government claims that minorities are
being given bank credit, the loan applications of Muslims are
rejected the moment their identity is revealed.

Naqvi said the Haj pilgrims are charged exorbitant fare
for going to Mecca.

While the two-way air fair to London is Rs 32,000 to Rs
35,000, Haj pilgrims are paying double the amount for half the
distance.

He said it appeared that the government wants to pass on
the "burden of its deficit and debt" on the pilgrims.

However, initiating the debate, Parvez Hashmi (Cong) said
the Government has taken several steps, including measures to
uplift Madrasas.

The problems of "minorities are being addressed in the
right direction," he said.

Narendra Kumar Kashyap (BSP) said that in pre-independence
era, the minorities used to have a share of 30-33 per cent in
Government jobs, but now it has dropped to 2-3 per cent.

"No Government did any serious work for welfare of the
minorities," he said.

Moinul Hassan (CPI-M) said the Government lacked
"political will" to solve problems of minorities.

The government should improve implementation of various
schemes and address the gap between allocation and expenditure
in the Multi Sector Development Plan (MSDP) for the
minorities` dominated 90 districts of the country, he said.

Claiming that 14 states were without any Haj Committee, he
sought to know how many instructions have been sent to those
states to set up the panels.

Ali Anwar Ansari (JD-U) criticised the government for not
implementing the Sachhar Committee and Rangnath Misra
Committee recommendations.

"What was the aim of this exercise, when you have not paid
attention to these reports," he asked.

The two panels went into the issue of socio-economic
conditions of the minorities.

Taking a jibe at Minority Affairs Minister Salman
Khurshid, Ansari said despite his elevation as a cabinet
minister, the allocations for the minorities were "curtailed"
in this Budget.

He said the grant-in-aid for the Central Wakf Board was
reduced from Rs 150 lakh to Rs 119 lakh and similarly in case
of the state Wakf Boards grant-in-aid was reduced from Rs 25
lakh to Rs nine lakh.